We Are Warriors, Not Victims
In our last lesson, we learned that spiritual warfare is a part of any believer's life, because the devil's kingdom is constantly at war with God's kingdom. We discovered that The devil will attack you simply because you belong to God, because the Holy Spirit resides within you. We saw that the bible considers this to be a normal part of the believer's life.
Let's revisit the two of the verses we looked at in that lesson, and examine them more closely. Let's start with Revelation 2:10. Jesus is speaking directly to His own, telling them that even though they are in the center of His will, they are about to experience an very nasty attack from the devil. He said:
Revelation 2:10-- "Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."
Note that all of the bad things that Jesus said were about to happen to them (being thrown into prison, being killed) actually happened at the hands of men. Yet, Jesus attributed these things to the devil, not to the men who actually did them. Jesus did not say, "Men will throw you into prison..." He said the devil would do it, working through these men. In short, Jesus acknowledged that the "bad things" that were about to happen to them were a form of spiritual warfare launched by the devil against them.
Why was the devil about to attack them? If we look back to verse 9, we see that it was because of their works. They were doing the things that Jesus wanted them to do; their work was advancing God's kingdom and tearing down the devil's kingdom. The devil did not like that, so he choose to fight back. He counter-attacked them for their godly works, and his attack was very hard on this church...some of them even died during it. Yet God permitted it. In short, the devil was allowed to harm them in this life, but not in the "life to come."
It might startle you to learn that God permitted this, but He did. That is because His vision and perspective are much broader than ours. He is able to see in all times and on both sides of death. From His viewpoint, physically dying is not really being "hurt." That is because your spirit goes to be with Him for all eternity, where He keeps you safe and sound (and blessed) in Heaven.
We have limited vision and can only see on this side of the curtain of death, so death seems like a very big deal to us. But God doesn't see it that way. Here is what He said to those who He was asking to die for Him: "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death."
God's perspective is different from ours because He has an eternal perspective. As a result, we might be a bit surprised by some of the spiritual warfare attacks that He may allow us to face.
Let's look at one more verse from our last lesson: 1 Peter 5:8-9. It says,
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."
This verse tells us that the devil causes sufferings as a form of warfare, and he is on the warpath looking for victims. Some of his attacks are unavoidable, such as the one Jesus warned about in Revelation 2:10. But for other of this attacks, we can counter them by being "sober and vigilant," and by "resisting him in steadfast faith."
In other words, we don't have to be hit (and taken out) by everything that the devil throws at us. We are not helpless targets, we are soldiers in the army of the Lord and the Lord has given us equipment to protect us and weapons to fight back. We already know about the defensive armor, and the offensive sword of the spirit, as per Ephesians chapter 6. But knowing about them is not enough...we need to use them. According to 1 Peter 5:8-9, we need to be vigilant (aware) and we need to be sober (clear headed and understanding the nature of warfare). If we do this, then it will be much harder for the enemy to waylay us with surprise attacks and take us out.
The Devil Manages His Resources
The devil is the general and master strategist of his demonic army. Unlike God, he is not all-knowing and he does not have unlimited resources. In fact, many theologians believe that 1/3 of the angels fell from Heaven with Satan, leaving God with 2/3 of them. They get this from a combination of Revelation 12:4 and Revelation 12:7-9.
Assuming they are correct, the devil has considerably less resources at his disposal than God does, not to mention the fact that the devil's power is limited and finite while God is all-powerful and completely unlimited. In short, both God's power and His resources far exceed what the devil has available to work with. That means the devil has to be very smart/careful in deploying his resources for maximum efficiency.
This is kind of an aside, but Jesus talked about kings going to war in Luke 14:31... He said, "Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?" Jesus went on to suggest that if the king realizes he is outnumbered, he will send a peace-making delegation while the other king's army is still far away. Unfortunately, the devil doesn't have the option to make peace with God. That means he is forced to carefully manage/allocate his resources.
So what does that mean to you? It means that the devil is going to allocate more resources against you when you are a bigger threat to him, especially in those times when you first start stepping out in a new level of authority or anointing with God. Don't get me wrong--all believers are dangerous to him. But someone who is healing the sick and sharing the good news of Jesus is more dangerous than someone who is so caught up in his own problems and carnal concerns that he forgets to let his light shine. Likewise, people with a big scope of influence will usually get more of the enemy's attention and resources than those whose lives only touch and influence a few people. And those who are passionately obeying God and moving in faith are much more dangerous to him (and thus deserving of more enemy attack) than those who are disobedient and pursuing their own agenda instead of following God's.
Does that mean that we should be afraid? Should hesitate to step out in obedience to God to move in His power and authority and advance His kingdom? Of course not.
But it does mean that we should be aware of the dimension of spiritual warfare; that we should take appropriate measures to protect ourselves against the enemy counter-attack that we know will be coming as we begin to move in greater levels of God's power and anointing.
We will be talking about how to do that later in this teaching series. We will look at how to prepare ourselves for the attack, so that we are less likely to be taken out by it when it comes. But for now, I just want to make you aware of this, so that you can start being sober and vigilant, and less likely to be an easy target for enemy counter attack.
We really do need to be aware of the enemy's strategies against us. Rodney Hogue recently shared an insight that I thought was really keen. He said, "The devil isn't in a hurry to hurt you. He likes to wait until you are at the peak of your influence first. But you have to put your guard up way before then, so that you will be ready when the big attack comes."
What Rodney means is that you shouldn't wait until you are in the midst of a fierce attack to learn how to fight and to begin protecting yourself from enemy attacks. You should get your protection in place early on, before the big onslaught comes, so that you will be prepared and ready when it does come. And that is basically what 1 Peter 5:8-9 says as well.
In short, it is true that the more we pray for (and heal) the sick, the more likely it is that we will get some enemy counter attack. But that shouldn't scare us away from praying, it should just motivate us to learn now to war more effectively, so that these attacks don't disable us.
A Bible Precedent Of God Permitting Enemy Attacks
Many of us have been taught that when we are in the center of God's will, He protects us from all harm. We get that thinking from passages like Psalm 91:5-12, which says:
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, 6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.7 A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. 8 Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord, Who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place-- 10 no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11 for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. 12 In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
There are times when God does protect us in that manner, but we should not expect the Psalm 91 type of protection (where hardship and difficulty never come knocking at our door) all of the time. That is not consistent with Jesus saying to His disciples, "In this world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33).
The truth is that there are times when God doesn't protect us from hardship/trial/attack. We see this over and over again in the bible where powerful men and woman of God faced all sorts of trails, hardship, difficulties and enemy attacks. In fact, the thing that made them great in God's kingdom was how they responded to difficulty; how they walked in faith and obedience to the Lord in the face of hardship.
In some cases, God came through for them with amazing deliverances that yielded very powerful testimonies, such as when God split the Red Sea or when He delivered Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego from the burning fiery furnace. But there were other times when He allowed His servants to lay down their very lives for their sakes. Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:34: "Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city..."
In short, there were times when God allowed the enemy to persecute and kill His servants, who were in the center of His will and acting in obedience to His command. The enemy attacked them (and in some cases put them to death); and God permitted it because their suffering/death somehow played a part in His bigger plan. While they paid a great price on this side of eternity, they received a greater reward for it on the other side. That is because God knows that for the believer, death isn't "the end," it is just a transition from this reality to God's eternal reality.
God sometimes permits things that seem "very bad" to us, but from His perspective, He is still protecting us from the much greater harm of eternal death. That is why Jesus said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:4b-5).
Jesus said that we would have tribulation in this life, but He did not leave it at that. He also said (in the same breath), "but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." He makes it possible for us to experience His joy and peace even in the midst of fierce tribulation, because He is with us and because His Spirit lives inside of us to help and strengthen us. He makes it possible for us to be of good cheer while we are experiencing tribulation.
The bible is full of testimony after testimony of mighty men and women of God who experienced tribulation and enemy attack in this world. In most cases, they were in the center of His will and obeying God when the enemy attack came.
Look at the prophet Jeremiah, for instance. He was chosen to be God's prophet before he was born, and he lived a very godly childhood (Jeremiah 1:5-6). He was called at a very young age and served God faithfully all of his life. God gave him crucial prophetic words to share, warning Jerusalem to repent or face judgment. He was thrown into prison for accurately decreeing God's warning that Babylon would conquer Judah and carry many of it's people away captive (Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah 37). At one point he was taken out of prison and lowered into a death pit because the government officials did not like his prophecies (Jeremiah 38:1-6). But he was rescued out of the death pit and put back into regular prison. He remained there a long time, until the Babylonians overran Judah and set him free. Then, when the rest of Judah went into captivity (in fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy), Jeremiah was set free.
In Jeremiah's case, he had to wait a very long time to receive His deliverance. But there were others, just as anointed and godly as Jeremiah, who never did receive their deliverance--such as John the Baptist.
John was one of the most anointed people to ever serve God. In Luke 7:28, Jesus said "For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." He was anointed before birth (Luke 1:41). He was given a very important job of preparing the way for Jesus' ministry. He served God faithfully all of the days of his life, fearlessly proclaiming the word of the Lord and he was recognized and honored as a prophet by the people that he ministered to. Many people repented and were baptized because of his ministry.
By our human reasoning, If there was anyone who God should protect from enemy attack, it was John.
Yet, God allowed John to be thrown into prison because of his ministry. Matthew 14:3-4 says, "Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had said to him, 'It is not lawful for you to have her.'"
In John's case, he was never set free from prison; he was executed (beheaded) instead (Matthew 14:10). God did not only allow the devil to attack John (prison), He also allowed the devil to kill him.
1 Kings 22 tells the story of another prophet, Micaiah son of Imlah, who was thrown into jail for the rest his life. His crime was prophesying God's truth to kings Ahab and Jehoshaphat, after they demanded that He prophesy to them. Micaiah did not want to prophesy to them, but Ahab sought him out at king Jehoshaphat's request. He demanded that Micaiah prophesy the results of an upcoming battle. Micaiah knew they would not like his message, so he tried to decline the request, but Jehoshaphat insisted. So Micaiah finally predicted that Ahab would be defeated and killed in battle. He went on to expose the demonic forces and strategies at work behind the scenes, warning how they wanted to trick Ahab into going into battle so that he might be killed (verses 19-23).
King Ahab's response is found in verses 26-27: "So the king of Israel said, 'Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son; and say, "Thus says the king: 'Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.'"'" Since King Ahab never returned in peace, there was no one to order Micaiah's release from prison, and he most likely stayed there until he died. In effect, the devil attacked him, and took him out of ministry.
There are times when God will call on us to suffer for Him (and possibly even to lay down our lives). When this happens, remember that our lives here on earth are very short and temporary compared to our eternal life with Him in Heaven.
Personally, I'd rather not suffer. I'd rather that God always protect me and keep me from all harm and discomfort. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. Jesus Himself said that some of us must suffer for His name's sake. There will be times when the devil attacks us and God allows him to harm us. We must not be shocked or caught off guard when that happens; but on the other hand, we must also remember that many times God will choose to deliver us, as per Psalm 91:5-12.
Learning To War
God's Deliverance
In our last lesson, we looked at some bible examples of times when God allowed the devil to attack, harm and kill some of His faithful servants. It is a sober truth--there are times when God does allow the enemy to attack and harm us, in order to fulfill some divine purpose.
But don't be dismayed by this. God doesn't allow the devil to have his way with every attack that he launches. In fact, God does come through for us in many cases.
For example, let's look at Daniel's experience. He was a mighty man of God who the devil tried to kill. Daniel was a high ranking official with a lot of power and authority, and some of the other officials were jealous of him. So they devised a plan to get him executed, by making it illegal to pray. (They did this because they knew that Daniel was a faithful man of prayer). Daniel was arrested, tried and sentenced to be executed for breaking this ridiculous law. The method of execution was to throw him into a den of hungry lions and leave him there overnight.
The devil prompted this attack against Daniel through these jealous officials. He did this because Daniel was actively building up God's kingdom, which tended to tear his down. But in Daniel's case, God delivered him. He sent an angel to shut up the lion's mouths and he delivered Daniel out of the lion's den safe and sound. You can read the full story in Daniel chapter 6.
There is another amazing story of God's deliverance from the same time period. It involved three godly Jewish youth (Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego) who been carried into captivity along with Daniel. They had been trained and then given influential government leadership positions. They remained faithful to the Lord, so He blessed them with wisdom and discernment, and He made them highly skilled in their respective jobs. They took stands for godliness and overtly honored God in every aspect of their lives, and that is why the devil tried to take them out.
You can read the full story in Daniel chapter 3, but I will give a short synopsis of their story here. One day, the king made a huge idol and commanded all of his leaders and government officials to bow down before it and worship it. These three refused to worship the idol, which made the king furious. So he ordered them to be executed by being thrown into a "burning fiery furnace." The heat from that giant furnace was so fierce that it killed the soldiers who threw them into it. It should have killed Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego as well, but God chose to intervene supernaturally and deliver them. He did it in such a spectacular way that the king ended up bowing down to Him, and worshipped Him instead of the idol he'd set up.
There are many other examples in the bible of God delivering His own a way that gives them an incredible testimony and brings glory to His name.
Different Types Of Attacks
I don't know why God permits the devil to attack His faithful servants instead of protecting them from the warfare--but He does. In some cases (like Jeremiah) the attack lasts for a season and God's deliverance comes later on. In other cases (like John the Baptist and Micaiah), God doesn't deliver them. Instead, the attack either kills them or takes them out for the rest of their lives. But in other cases (like Daniel, Meshack, Shadrack and Abednego), God's deliverance comes instantly. He rises up to protect His own from the attack, and to turn the situation around to His glory.
As far as I can tell, there are three different types of attacks. The first is those that God permits, so that He can works His glory in them (like parting the Red Sea). The second type is attacks that require us to suffer for His name's sake, so that some divine purpose we don't fully understand is accomplished. An example of this Jesus-- He had to personally suffer and die on Calvary to accomplish the greater good of our salvation. The third type of attack is the ones where God expects us to defend ourselves, to fight back and gain victory using the spiritual resources that He has given us.
This third type of attack is the one that we need to learn how to prepare for, and defend against. That way, we will not be taken out by it when it comes. The enemy of our soul hopes that he can catch us off guard. He wants to be able to inflict some level of harm on us simply because we are not prepared to fight back and fend off his attack.
Enemy Counter-Attack and Healing
We have been discussing how the devil attacks God's servants because he is at war with God. Anytime we do something to advance God's kingdom, the devil interprets this as a personal attack against his kingdom, and many times he chooses to fight back.
What does this mean to us in the context of healing ministry? It means that we need to be aware that healing is not just "doing good" for sick people--it is also warfare. Most of us see ourselves as simply praying for people and being thrilled as we see the power of God come and heal them. Our hearts are filled with compassion for the sick person, and we just want good for them. We don't tend to see that type of activity as a warfare situation, but the devil does.
That is because he is making people sick and spreading misery to get people into bondage, which expands his kingdom. So when you free them from that bondage, you are actively fighting against what the devil is doing, and tearing down his kingdom. To him, that is war. You become dangerous to him and his plans, and that is why he counter-attacks you...he is fighting back to defend his territory.
So the attacks against us are likely to increase as we step up to higher levels of ministering healing. And that is why it is important for us to learn how to effectively defend ourselves against those attacks.
Again, there are three types of attacks: those where God allows him to harm us, those where God defends us and those where God expects us to defend ourselves. In my experience, most of the attacks that come in response to healing ministry fall into the third category. That is why it is important that we learn what we can do to defend ourselves from these attacks.
We will talk about how to do that more in future lessons.
[Previous Article] [Next Article]